BOSTON — Exhausted after running 26.2 miles through the streets of Boston, yet exhilarated over accomplishing the feat for the second time, John Bannan heard two explosions, the first one louder than the second.

"They must be shooting off cannons for the race," someone on the street said.

But Bannan, who also ran the Boston Marathon last year, instantly knew something was wrong. "They don’t shoot cannons," he said.

Then he saw smoke billowing.

Bannan, 50, of Demarest, was among 562 New Jerseyans who participated in one of the nation’s most celebrated events in one of America’s most historic cities on Patriots Day.

Droves of runners had just crossed the finish line and were walking to a row of buses to pick up their gear bags.

It was 2:45 p.m.

Two bombs went off near the finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 100.

"A minute later, there were no runners, so you knew it was bad," said Bannan, who finished the marathon in 3½ hours, about a half-hour before the blasts.

He just didn’t know how bad.

Blood covered the streets. A man was being pushed along in a wheelchair, with half a leg gone.

Michele Wellington, 53, a Barnegat Light resident who grew up in Boston, finished the race about 7 minutes before the first blast and was standing about 200 yards away when the ground shook.

"I never felt anything like that," she said. "It was dead calm and silent and everyone looked around, confused."

Trying to get back to her hotel, Wellington passed the medical tent and saw two injured people on stretchers, one with his clothes off.

Wellington said she’s run the race five times and normally finishes faster, but had injuries this year that left her with less time to prepare.

She considered walking the last section of the race — and wondered at the hotel what would have happened had she followed through with that urge.

"What if that delayed me by seven minutes?" she asked.

John Mihalio, 55, from Dumont, crossed the finish line about two minutes before the explosion and was walking away when he heard a boom.

"It was loud, not like a truck backfiring," he said. "You could feel it go through you."

Bruce Mendelsohn, 44, was in an office above the finish line, celebrating the successful marathon of his brother, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Newark, when the blast threw him off the couch, he said.

He ran outside, where only a few minutes earlier people had been packed five to 10 deep on the sidewalk.

Now he saw a "carpet of glass" and about a dozen wounded people. When the ringing in his ears subsided, screams and sirens filled the air.

A woman walked around dazed, crying out for her child.

"She had glass in her hair, and blood strewn on her face," Mendelsohn said.

He reunited the mother and child, then stayed to assist emergency workers.

Michael Arnstein, 36, who grew up in South Orange, was less than a quarter-mile past the finish line when the ground shook and the blast echoed through the buildings.

"Everybody jumped, and within a few seconds the second explosion went off and everybody just started running," said Arnstein, participating in his 18th Boston Marathon.

The blast went off at the 4:09 mark, the average time for running the 26.2-mile marathon.

"They timed this thing to go off right when it was the peak," Arnstein said. "The middle of the pack was coming through."

He plans to return next year and race with his fist in the air.

"They should have twice as many people in this race next year," Arnstein said. "And I’ll be the first person on the starting line next year for my 19th marathon. Nothing is going to stop me."
Star-Ledger staff writers Matt Friedman, Tomas Dinges, Dan Goldberg, Mark Mueller and Kelly Heyboer contributed to this report.